"THREE! TWO! ONE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE PINNAKO!" The cry went up around the gardens, the one place in the city where trees still grew. It had originated from one corner of the patch of land, situated around a large buffet table where crowds of people milled about, talking and laughing and having a good time. The scene was straight out of a storybook with luminescent bubbles bathing the whole of the grassy area in a soft salmon glow. It was hard to believe that outside the small patch of land, life still revolved as usual with muggings and drugs commonplace in the downtown city hubs.
Glasses chinked in toast towards a short, fierce woman whose hair was pulled back tight enough so that it just barely avoided cutting off circulation to her brain. (Or, at least that was the excuse Winry used when said woman was being more eccentric than usual.) She was sucking bemusedly on the end of an unlit pipe, filled to the brim with tobacco. It had been a birthday present, and (to no one's surprise) the aging woman had wasted no time in breaking it in.
In fact, most people were amazed that she'd actually stopped to read the inscription first.
Converged in small groups of four to six, people began to break away from the food laden table (Which was groaning in protest) and young children ran underfoot causing a hindrance and getting in the way with the ease of long practise. It was the perfect scene of enjoyment except for down near the foot of the table where Edward sat, staring glumly into his glass of flavoured water with a thoughtful frown.
"Hey." Winry greeted, sliding herself into the seat at right angles with the boy. He looked up and smiled briefly, before casting his gaze downwards again. "What's wrong?"
His focus remained solely in the depths of the clear liquid for a moment before he glanced up again. The same thoughtful frown was still in place as he commented, "You look nice tonight Win'." In an offhand kind of way. He gave a smile designed to be cheerful, but failing to meet the grade. It wasn't a lie, for Winry did look nice with her hair pulled back into a long braid that hung almost to her hips over a light green, loose fitting dress.
She rapped him lightly on the forehead with her knuckles. "Flattery will get you everywhere, mister, except out of the question." She grinned at him, but her expression faltered as he strained to return the smile. "Seriously though, Edward, what's wrong?"
"Have you seen Nina tonight? She looks a lot better." He replied, and to an outsider it would have appeared that he was attempting to change the track of conversation once again. But Winry knew better. She stole a sip of his drink, ("Hey!") and grinned before replying.
"She does. I can't believe it really. She looked so pale and sickly before the operation."
Edward nodded. "I guess it's always good when DIGITizing works." He said it with a smile. Winry wasn't fooled.
"Edward, stop. You saved that little girl's life. Don't resent her for succeeding where Ana and Nick failed." She snapped at him, all too aware of how often she was scolding him recently. "If you weren't there when the Beast attacked her, she wouldn't be alive today." Winry glared, for she remembered all too well the mutated travesty that broke out of the research labs to terrorise the city's slums. It had been two stories tall and covered in horns and venomous fangs. Edward had jumped out in front of it to save a little girl it had chosen for its' next target. He'd had his arm wrenched from its' socket, and the little girl had been battered and stabbed by a toxic barb.
Edward blinked at her. "Yeah, but I failed then, too, didn't I? She nearly died anyway, and all I got to show for it was this." He pulled back the right sleeve of his jacket, revealing a metal plate attached to a prosthetic arm. Winry glared. She'd made that arm for Ed.
"You shouldn't hold yourself responsible for everything, Edward, you couldn't save Ana and Nick, because you had no clue what was happening. You COULD save Nina and you did, and gained a friend in doing so." She reasoned, but Edward just huffed and turned away.
She sighed, placing a hand on his metallic limb. "Edward, it's not too much to ask to have someone else to carry some of the load you know."
"What load?" He growled, his temper rising quickly. "I'm fine by myself." He stood up quickly, and moved away from the table before she had a chance to talk to him further. And only when he thought she had turned away did he let his shoulders slump in defeat.
She sighed, pouring herself her own drink. "That load, Edward, that load."
"Get some beer into him Winry!" Someone called, and she forced a smile as she went to visit the other guests.
Edward had moved away to sit under one of the sparse trees in the clearing. He smiled softly at a blue bubble floating his way and batted at it when it got a little too close. Taking a deep breath, he expelled it in a long sigh as he fought to get his emotions back under control. Usually, he was able to brush off anything that Winry said to him quickly, and go back to being cheerful with her, but this time the girl had said so many things in such quick succession, that he didn't even think he was capable of keeping up with them. "Dammit." He growled out, slamming his fist into the damp soil next to him. "Why can't she just butt out of my life?"
He knew he didn't mean it though, he had too close a connection with the girl not to, but sometimes it seemed like they were completely alien. Too different. It was almost as if they came from different worlds.
Or maybe he was just being stupid.
He pulled his jacket slightly tighter around him to prevent the creeping night chill from attacking his metallic arm. It was pleasantly warm at the moment, and he wanted it to retain that heat as long as possible. He was grateful to the girl, he supposed, for without her, he never would have maintained the use of his right arm and been forever marred. She had even given him the arm at half price because he was a family friend.
"Edward Little Brother?" A shy voice spoke from a few yards away. "Why are you over here Edward Little Brother and not with the party?" Out of the shadows, a girl of about six approached. She carried marks of weariness (ghostly pale skin, and deep bags under her eyes) and looked almost too sickly to be out and about. One hand was clutched around a shaggy plush dog, while the other was held limply at her side. She approached him slowly.
"Hi Nina." Edward greeted, reaching out a hand, which she took, coming to settle cuddled up against him. Nina was the only person Edward really allowed to touch him. Not even Winry received the privilege anymore. "How are you tonight?"
"Nina's tired, Edward Little Brother." She replied quietly. "Nina wants to go home and sleep."
He smiled sadly down at her. Her mental development had been slowed due to the animal part of her instincts, but she was still growing unlike his parents. He scratched gently between two normal ears nestled into thick brown hair. If he didn't know any better he would say that she was completely human. "Then you should tell your father, Nina, I'm sure that he'll take you home."
"Papa says it's not safe to wander home alone, Edward Little brother." She quoted, blinking up at him, "So Nina must wait until Papa and Papa's friends are ready to go home."
She smiled at him. "But Edward Little Brother is sad. Why?"
Edward considered the question for a moment, the intellectual level of the one syllable surprising him. "Have you ever felt like you just wanted to fly away from somewhere, but you can't?" He asked her, looking up at the sky as he spoke. She made a noise of confusion, and snuggled deeper into him. He laughed softly. "Never mind Nina." He wrapped an arm about her shoulders cautiously.
She stared at him for a moment, before squirming out of his impromptu embrace. "Edward Little Brother should be having fun at the party! Edward Little brother shouldn't be sad."
He blinked at her, caught off guard by her sudden attitude switch. "What?"
"It's a party." She stressed, looking down at him from where she had stood up. "Edward Little Brother should not be sad!" She waggled a finger for emphasis before trotting back over to the throng of people.
Edward watched her go, still slightly shocked. She was right, he realised. Feeling sorry for himself could wait. He could have fun now.
"Glad to see the boy's finally going to enjoy himself." Pinnako grinned fiercely as she watched Edward make his way out from under the tree to the drinks table. "You owe me 5 bucks mister." She shoved the man next to her who groaned, fisting in his pocket for the currency.
"How has the boy been anyway?" Her black haired companion replied, handing over the bill with slight reluctance. "I haven't seen him since..." He coughed quickly, with a pointed look at Pinnako.
The aging woman took a sip of her drink before replying. "A bit too well maybe." The boy in question laughed and shoved an offered glass of wine away, settling for more of the flavoured water he enjoyed. No amount of persuasion could get him to change his mind and the person who had offered walked away, muttering and shaking their head in confusion. "According to my busy body of a granddaughter, he's a lot more cynical and critical these days but otherwise he's fine. The same Edward down to the temper tantrums."
"What?" The man asked, slightly stunned, "No depression at all?"
Pinnako shook her head. "I didn't believe it when I heard it first either. But like I said. Perhaps he is a bit too cheerful unless he forgets that there are others around." She watched her 'busybody of a granddaughter' drag a wildly protesting Edward towards the dance floor. They were both laughing, though to the trained ear Edward's laugh sounded a bit false.
"He broke down, though you wouldn't know it just by looking at him. Around about the July after that horrid experiment. It was Winry who found him." She grinned at the fierce protectiveness of her granddaughter. "She was worried because 'I hadn't received a reply from Edward' in the conversation they were having." She smiled as she quoted Winry, but her tone quickly turned dark. "She found him in the floor curled up into a tight as anything ball, clutching his head. She still isn't sure as to whether he was screaming or sobbing. He lashed out at her every time she came close."
The man smirked. "Was it really that serious?" He spoke in the tone of the disbelieving
"She called for me." Pinnako replied. "I came at once, but by the time I had reached his apartment, he was sitting on the end of his bed muttering things about 'wings' and a man called 'Mustang.'"
Winry laughed as Edward spun her twice and tried to escape. She pulled him back, deliberately holding him close just to annoy.
"Strangest thing I've ever seen. He was muttering things about his parents, and how Mustang better not leave him again. He didn't seem to realise that we were in the room. Of course we sent him to therapy the very next week. Fat lot of good it did." She growled around the pipe she was now lighting.
The boy had managed to escape from Winry and was now giving a piggyback ride to a much livelier Nina Tucker. Pinnako blew an elegant smoke ring out over the heads of the crowd, somehow managing it for all her short stature. "Edward claims not to remember a thing about the incident. He also doubts that he needs any help at all. But you know what they say. You can lend a politician your money, but you can't make them think."
It was the early hours of the morning by the time Edward returned to his small apartment. Granted, he had had a good night, but the tiring nature of it all was beginning to catch up with him, and he no longer could fight the noise of fluttering just about his head.
He had just decided to crash upon his bed, when the computer whirred into life. Cocking a brow at the strange activity, he waited it out, to be greeted with,
"One new message."
"What does Winry want this time?" He muttered to himself, pressing the retrieval button located upon his night stand.
A screen flashed into life above his head, and a strangely familiar man with black hair and deep, dark blue eyes whirred into focus. Edward had never seen him before in his life, but as the man began talking, Edward was struck with a wave of Deja-vu so thick and fast that he had to sit down.
"Hello Edward." The message spoke in rich, sultry tones, "My name is Roy Mustang. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but, you see, we've already met..."
A/n: Oh gods. I'm glad that's done. This chapter was hell to write, half the time Winry couldn't say the things that I wanted her to say, because they were either OOC or made her sound like a ditz. And I like Win, so I can't have that.
The Nina scene was re-written 4 times before I was happy with it, as was Pinnako's explanation. I'm still not really happy with either, but hey, after 2 months, I figured you'd want an update.
Not only that, but battling Ross River Virus, Schoolwork, and all those other nasty little buggers called commitments really left me depleted every time I had some free time to write. So please don't hurt me, I'm really sorry and all the rest of it.
Next chapter is going to be fun. (Note the heavy sarcasm.) But you'll see why when that's out. But I like the couple after that, so expect more lively updates soon.
And no, my other fics are not dead. They are just going under heavy rewriting.
Please leave a review for an author who really doesn't deserve it?